I Promise
by Captain of L'Emeraude
Summary: He kisses her hip “Remember this” and he walks out the door, cape over his shoulders, wand in his hand, and his heart in the brown eyes of the girl who believes all his promises.


**OK. So this story was inspired by Famous Last Words by dk2022. I listened to Famous Last Words by My Chemical Romance the entire time I was writing this (and drove my brother batty) and so I have to give some of the credit to them as well. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own too much of anything from this fic, actually. I own the poor punctuation and irritating present tense 3rd person narration and lack of a hint as to who the main male character is. sorry. I own all the aggravating parts.**

He kissed her pink lips and brushed his hand over the curve of her hip. "Are you sure you want this?" Her eyes are wide with fear, and she shakes her head. He looks at her, confused and she opens her mouth to explain.

She pauses, struggling for the right words.

"It's more than want. I need this. If you… I can't… I won't survive if you-" He kisses her, cutting off her words, doesn't let her voice what they both know she was going to say, and runs his fingers through her wavy brown hair.

"Shhh. I promise. I promise." She nods, trusting him as no one else would, and lies down on the bench. He pulls out his wand and starts to work. She hisses in pain and he looks up, startled, to see her holding back tears. He moves to put his wand away and she screams.

"NO! Please! I need this. Please?" He sighs and points his wand back at the pale skin of her hip where, moments ago, his hand had rested. He mutters the spell again and continues what he had started. He can't look up to check on her. He can't make sure she is alright. He can't because he knows that if there is a single tear on her lightly freckled face he will stop and have to face her wrath. He tries to ignore the way her delicate hands are gripping the edge of the bench, how white her knuckles are, how her tendons are pressing against her skin. He bites down on his lip and tries to concentrate all of his energy on completing the spell. On ending the pain.

Soon he is so absorbed in the spell that he doesn't have to concentrate on ignoring her, he loses all awareness of her but for the few square inches of skin that he is layering with coat after coat of magic- magic that goes deep to the bones. He doesn't notice when her tensed legs relax or when her gripping hand falls over the edge limply. All he sees are the green letters glowing on her skin and all he feels is his love pouring from his heart to her body.

xxxXXXxxx

He kissed her pink lips and brushed his hand over the curve of her hip. "It's over. You can wake up now. The pain is over now. I promise."

She smiles into the kiss and puts her hand over his. She wishes she could ask him to stay, but she knows she can't.

He looks down into the eyes of this beautiful seventeen year old girl, his one true love, and sees it all in her eyes. He wonders at how the gods could have found him deserving of someone as wonderful as she. "I have to go, but I will come back. I love you. I promise." He kisses her hip "Remember this" and he walks out the door, cape over his shoulders, wand in his hand, and his heart in the brown eyes of the girl who believes all his promises.

xxxXXXxxx

A man walks alone down a dark street and cries out in pain as a flash of light accompanied by a harsh yell sends him to his knees. Three cloaked figures surround him, assaulting him, and though he screams in pain, no one can hear him but his attackers, and they aren't hearing what they want to hear. Between uncontrolled yells of pain he gasps "I won't. I can't. I promised." The bright flashes and harsh yells continue for what seems to him like an eternity- an eternity he could have spent at home with the one person in the world who really mattered to him. The one person who really cared.

"He isn't telling anything." A cloaked figure puts its wand back in a hidden pocket.

"He's hardly in the condition to. He looks like death twice over. It's even in his eyes. He isn't going anywhere." One of the cloaked figures chuckles maliciously to his partners. With a pop they dissaperate and then the only evidence of the encounter left is a man with no life in his eyes, laying broken on the street, staring blankly up at the leaves overhead.

A finger twitches. His eyes regain focus and search frantically. His mouth opens—air escapes his lips in a hoarse whisper "I promise." He takes his wand in hand and stops. Even as his eyes go black, he stops. He can't go back. He can't put her through this pain. He can't keep his promise. A tear burns a path down his cheek and he lays his hands back down on the pavement. The world goes back, the pain recedes, and he lashes out- forcing all of his magic into the tree above him- and then the light in his eyes goes out.

xxxXXXxxx

A man with black hair and regretful green eyes knocks on the door of a close friend, briefly wonders at a magnificent tree that he swears hadn't been there the last time he visited, and then starts at the sound of sobs from inside. He opens the door tentatively to see his friend crumpled on the floor, wavy brown locks curtaining her shaking head from the rest of the world. He realizes immediately that she already knows, but does not know how she could.

"He never came to the meeting last night. We assumed that you had asked him to stay with you. None of us would have blamed him. There is no way in the world he could have said no to you."

The sobs stop and she looks up at him, her eyes vacant of hope and filled with self-loathing and regret "I know. I didn't ask him to stay because I knew. It's my fault. I blame myself and you should too." He stands in shock for a moment before gathering her in his arms. He wishes he could tell her it wasn't true, promise her that the blame belongs solely to those who attacked her love, but he knows it is useless.

She only believed one man's promises.

xxxXXXxxx

A young woman sits curled up in the branches of a tree in front of her house. The wind blows into her eyes and rather than angrily pushing it behind her ears as she would elsewhere, she closes the book and leans into the wind's caress. The leaves flutter around her, even as all the other trees in the yard are still and silent, and she feels the tree's warm breath tangle in her hair. The leaves whisper to her and she smiles through her tears.

"I promise."

She touches the green lettering on her hip and whispers back "I remember."

_I am not afraid_

* * *

**So I liked this story idea, but I didn't know whether I wanted it to be a Draco/Hermione or a Snape/Hermione so I just left it open to interpretation. sorry. **

**Please Review! Cookies and other assorted delicious things for those who say good things, chocolate shakes and hugs for all who give constructive criticism! Also, I do not go by the philosophy stated in a certain MUSE song: "Hate this and I'll Love You" is not how I roll. Flame this and I'll take the high road and ignore you. :P**


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